It started a couple months ago as people were talking about their ages in a group setting. Since I am often younger than my friends, I was again being accused of being 'so young'. To this, I replied, "I'm not that young, I'm almost 39!" Then it hit me. I'm almost 39. Then comes 40. I keep thinking I'm still about 28, so I'm not really sure how this happened.
Don't get me wrong, I don't care about age. I'm not vain and it doesn't concern me that much. The problem here is that I was going to be in better shape by the time I turn 40. (Cause then everything gets so much harder, right?) Heh. The clock is ticking as I eat my bavarian cream donuts and whatever else I want while I sit around.
In most areas of my life I am not lazy. I'm a hard worker, and very efficient. I do what needs to be done, I go full throttle all day... but I will NEVER pass up a nap opportunity, and often try to make time. I love naps. Even when I'm busy being productive, it's still sitting in a chair in front of the computer or driving in the car. To exercise, I actually have to change clothes and put on shoes and go out the front door in the cold and rain and do something that sucks. So, I am very lazy about doing anything active.
So, I'm pushing 40, would have more energy and would lose weight if I start exercising. I will be starting the Couch to 5K. I can't stand it when people talk about running all the time, but my excuse is health. We are going to pretend it's not starting on January 1, because that's so predictable. We are going to attempt to change our eating habits to include a vegetable from time to time (boooring).
Here's all my excuses for not doing these things before:
1. I don't make new year's resolutions. If you're going to change something, do it when you realize it.
2. I hate exercise. (Still true)
3. I hate it when people talk about exercise all the time as though it's fun.
4. I hate it when I go out to dinner with women and they order salad when I want a burger, then I can't order a burger because I'll look like a pig. (This is why they are thinner than I am.)
5. Dieting takes too much effort, time, tracking, etc.
6. Healthier foods are more expensive.
7. I love eating out, but there's no point if I have to get salad in order to keep the calories at a reasonable level.
8. It's too much work. All of it.
9. My image of myself is still how I was when I was younger and about 50 lbs lighter. Only when I see a picture of myself do I realize what has happened.
10. I hate people checking up on me and when they (especially Mike) ask me how it's going, I want to punch them in the neck and quit the whole thing.
So... I'm going to "Get over my bad self" and stuff my excuses and get busy. Not to be a marathoner, but just to have a healthier lifestyle as I hit 40 and hopefully lose lots of weight in the process.
I have until Monday to finish off all the junk food in the house. :)
Friday, December 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
The Problem with Kids
I think that in the 11 years I've had kids, the thing that irritates me the most about them, makes me mad the most, and that I really wish there was a good solution to is...
THEIR TOYS!
and their books, clothes, junk they want to save, collections, trophies, socks, trash, wrappers... etc.
Today, I've been going through the boys' room. Again. Although they know I'm sorting it out, I have to be on the sly as well so they don't know what I'm throwing away, giving away or planning to sell. So they do not get to 'help'.
I've done this project at least once a year, sometimes more. There are so many pieces of things. Bionicle Parts, Lego sets, etc. I know that once I sort them out, the boxes will be dumped out again and mixed up and more pieces lost as time goes on. Then I'll do this again.
The saddest part of it is going through the toys, and remembering when G just HAD to have Grimlock. I searched up and down to get it on eBay. Now, it sits in a tub of toys with it's leg missing. Or, how about the little doo-dad thingy that caused sleepless nights when it was lost in the car. Now it's forgotten in a box. All these toys that were SO important, they just HAD to have it, and they loved them. For a minute. I know, sounds kinda like Toy Story.
Well, anyway, that's all I have to say about thaa-aat. Back to filling up my garbage can and running to Goodwill for a donation.
THEIR TOYS!
and their books, clothes, junk they want to save, collections, trophies, socks, trash, wrappers... etc.
Today, I've been going through the boys' room. Again. Although they know I'm sorting it out, I have to be on the sly as well so they don't know what I'm throwing away, giving away or planning to sell. So they do not get to 'help'.
I've done this project at least once a year, sometimes more. There are so many pieces of things. Bionicle Parts, Lego sets, etc. I know that once I sort them out, the boxes will be dumped out again and mixed up and more pieces lost as time goes on. Then I'll do this again.
The saddest part of it is going through the toys, and remembering when G just HAD to have Grimlock. I searched up and down to get it on eBay. Now, it sits in a tub of toys with it's leg missing. Or, how about the little doo-dad thingy that caused sleepless nights when it was lost in the car. Now it's forgotten in a box. All these toys that were SO important, they just HAD to have it, and they loved them. For a minute. I know, sounds kinda like Toy Story.
Well, anyway, that's all I have to say about thaa-aat. Back to filling up my garbage can and running to Goodwill for a donation.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Damage Control
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| ::One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest:: |
Well, Duh. We're still here and Harold Camping is obviously as much of a lunatic as we knew he was. The problem with this? He called himself a Christian. That's embarrassing. So, let's just break this down. I like simplicity.
What does the Bible say?
NO ONE KNOWS WHEN!
Mark 13:32-33, 35-37 "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. / Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake."
There will be False Prophets. There are many places in Scripture that talk about false prophets. Warnings.
Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
II Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
What about Harold Camping? If you refer to Scripture, you will quickly find that our buddy HC is making stuff up! The Bible clearly states that we will NOT know. It doesn't say that someday, someone will be smart enough to figure it out.
What about his followers? Sadly, they were lured by a cult. There's nothing new under the sun. There's really no excuse either, because in the last 60 years we've dealt with David Koresh, Jim Jones and the Koolaid, HaleBop, Harold Camping v.1 (once wasn't enough?), and even Charles Manson.
If they had done their homework and read their Bibles, they would have found out about these similar scenarios, instead of just listening to their leader. Unfortunately, the fault lies with them.
What about Christians? We were never threatened by this, because we could see through his lies. If he did manage to coerce any Christians, we might speculate that they never had a real understanding of Jesus Christ and His saving work on the cross. The Holy Spirit gives us discernment and we have the Word to show us the truth.
What about Non-believers? Things like this cause much mockery of all Christians (because HC called himself one and ran a "Christian" radio station). If they don't know the Bible, they can't separate truth from lies, so it all sounds like a big crock. If you read through some of the commentary after the articles about HC online, mockery runs rampant. Along with the mockery comes more disbelief and pushes them farther from the truth. God can use anything, though. Maybe some will choose to check into it a little more?
Ultimately, though, God is the creator, He created us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. He gave us His own Son, who died on a cross, and rose 3 days later. He IS coming again, at an unknown time, for a final judgement.
Romans 14:11-12
As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. |
Black Pawn ___________________________________________________________ |
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Pink Trees: The Finale
We got the house. They even agreed to pay sellers fees or something like that. We moved forward with the process and the next few weeks were a whirlwind. We had the inspection on the new house, and the inspector couldn't find anything wrong with it. He said, "It's in creepy good condition." Apparently the previous owner was very... uptight? Even the garage was finished.
One of the things that Cydny always made note of on the houses we looked at was LP siding. This house has LP siding, as does the whole neighborhood, but she determined that it has been properly sealed and looks good. The inspector agreed on that. As we stopped back at the house FOR the inspection, she touches the house and says, "Now we remember this has the LP siding." I gave Mike a glance because it was kinda funny how that was such a trigger point to her.
Then we got a call from the Mortgage Broker, "Good News! Your loan is approved!" WTH? You're telling me NOW that our loan is approved? I thought it was approved LONG AGO. Apparently, pre-approval isn't the final word. Mini panic with relief to follow quickly. About the MB, on principle, we planned to switch brokers after the mistake she made. Very soon after her mistake, she offered to cut all her fees and commissions. This was about a $7000 credit, if I recall properly. Regardless, every bit helped and we appreciated her willingness to do this. She felt awful. We stayed with her and had an opportunity to make a point of forgiveness instead of retribution.
Now we were just waiting to make the move. The sell/buy had to be back to back because the buy had to be funded by the sell. We gathered up a group of guys from church to help move out. Many thanks to them and to Paula for cleaning! I think this was Tuesday. We had a hotel room reserved for the night, and the truck was cleared through Thursday.
Finally, everything came through. We checked out of the hotel around 1pm on Friday, went to Escrow to sign papers, called the troops and met up at the house to UNLOAD! :)
During the next few weeks, we unpacked and settled in. Thanks to Celeste for unpacking most of my kitchen. It was feelings of overwhelm and relief all at once. It was over and we had landed in a great house. The neighbors are nice, the dogs have just enough room, the yard is easy to upkeep, the neighborhood is clean and well kept.
Probably one of the best things is that there are so many kids around here. I mean, that is good and bad all together, but my kids are learning how to deal with kids who are from other backgrounds. Especially for Julia, there is one girl on the street and they have become best buddies. They even look alike :) The kids have been able to have more freedom to just 'go outside and play'. I'm getting used to having kids in and out of the house all the time.
It's just so obvious, hindsight being 20/20, that the whole thing was providential. We need some stress in our lives from time to time so that God can remind us who is in control. Even though it looked like our world was going to cave in for awhile, He knew the plan. Although, mentally it's easy to say, "God has gone out ahead of us and knows the end of the story.", it's hard to put that into practice in the middle of a situation. End result is that He gave us a nice house in a good 'hood, that is still affordable, with a better loan product, good neighbors, new friends, easy yard, closer to lots of school friends, a babysitter from church 2 minutes away, dog sitter in the house behind us, and on and on. We are very grateful.
Now to do the floors... :)
Thanks for listening.
One of the things that Cydny always made note of on the houses we looked at was LP siding. This house has LP siding, as does the whole neighborhood, but she determined that it has been properly sealed and looks good. The inspector agreed on that. As we stopped back at the house FOR the inspection, she touches the house and says, "Now we remember this has the LP siding." I gave Mike a glance because it was kinda funny how that was such a trigger point to her.
Then we got a call from the Mortgage Broker, "Good News! Your loan is approved!" WTH? You're telling me NOW that our loan is approved? I thought it was approved LONG AGO. Apparently, pre-approval isn't the final word. Mini panic with relief to follow quickly. About the MB, on principle, we planned to switch brokers after the mistake she made. Very soon after her mistake, she offered to cut all her fees and commissions. This was about a $7000 credit, if I recall properly. Regardless, every bit helped and we appreciated her willingness to do this. She felt awful. We stayed with her and had an opportunity to make a point of forgiveness instead of retribution.
Now we were just waiting to make the move. The sell/buy had to be back to back because the buy had to be funded by the sell. We gathered up a group of guys from church to help move out. Many thanks to them and to Paula for cleaning! I think this was Tuesday. We had a hotel room reserved for the night, and the truck was cleared through Thursday.
 |
| Smoochie in the car - didn't want to be left behind :) |
 |
| Here's the cat in the hotel room, guarding all our earthly possessions in the truck outside. The dogs went to the farm. |
Now we started getting calls from Cydny about a delay in the buyers' closing! Something was going wrong. Soooo stressful. Sitting in a hotel room, totally displaced, and now we find out that the whole thing could fail? We kept the kids going to school, and hoped and prayed that everything would go through. We waited Wednesday (thought we'd be moving IN that day). Then Thursday. Making regular calls and texts to Cydny and Curtis from the Escrow company. Extended the hotel room, called Uhaul to extend to Friday. I was mentally going through what we would do if it failed. I figured, we'd have to move back into our old house. We had moved past that though, it would be really hard to go back.
Finally, everything came through. We checked out of the hotel around 1pm on Friday, went to Escrow to sign papers, called the troops and met up at the house to UNLOAD! :)
 |
| Optimus and Diesel enjoying their new yard. |
Probably one of the best things is that there are so many kids around here. I mean, that is good and bad all together, but my kids are learning how to deal with kids who are from other backgrounds. Especially for Julia, there is one girl on the street and they have become best buddies. They even look alike :) The kids have been able to have more freedom to just 'go outside and play'. I'm getting used to having kids in and out of the house all the time.
It's just so obvious, hindsight being 20/20, that the whole thing was providential. We need some stress in our lives from time to time so that God can remind us who is in control. Even though it looked like our world was going to cave in for awhile, He knew the plan. Although, mentally it's easy to say, "God has gone out ahead of us and knows the end of the story.", it's hard to put that into practice in the middle of a situation. End result is that He gave us a nice house in a good 'hood, that is still affordable, with a better loan product, good neighbors, new friends, easy yard, closer to lots of school friends, a babysitter from church 2 minutes away, dog sitter in the house behind us, and on and on. We are very grateful.
Now to do the floors... :)
Thanks for listening.
|
Black Pawn ___________________________________________________________ |
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Pink Trees: Part 3: In This Together
Cydny called and said it's time to start looking. We pulled up some houses online that we thought looked interesting, and she pulled some up too. Blow #1 - all the really good looking ones were priced that low because they were Foreclosures or Short Sales. We didn't have the time or energy to go through that process. It could be really long, and often unsuccessful. She filtered out most of the ones we had pulled up. The selection was getting slim. (I just went searching for my folder of flyers I had, and realize that I still hate looking back on all this!)
On a Tuesday, while the kids were at school, we went out with Cydny to look at houses. I took the stack of papers, and made notes on them. Here are some of my notes:
"Blue" The interior of this house was blue. All rooms painted in shades of blue. All blue carpet.
"Purple" This one had a lot of purple carpet, and about 4 different types of floorings... wood, laminate and tile.
"Italian Restaurant" Featuring fake tile and no yard.
"Small"
"/" ... due to zero lot line
"Road Noise"
"Potential"
"X" ... on corner of 2 busy streets
"Smoke"
"Power Lines" At least one of the houses that resided near to power lines was pretty nice. Cydny and Mike had to let me know that it wouldn't be a good move. I didn't think it was that big a deal, but they were probably right.
We were kinda laughing at our poor luck, a little bit. It was getting a bit scary though. Although our little house was so small, at least it was already fixed up and in a good location. But, oh yeah, it was sold.
Sunday. We left the kids with someone (sorry, I can't remember who helped us that day... but I think it was Susan). We 'upped' the price range a little bit to get some new options, and counted on the poor sellers' market to work in our favor for negotiations. More powerlines, but we saw a couple decent ones this time. Gave us a little hope.
Then an open house... Wow... This looks good... Besides needing a new shake roof, this place was good. It was priced to sell quickly as the owner had to move back East. It was on a nice culdesac and backed up to a greenbelt. Make an OFFER NOW. So we did. There was already one other offer on it, so the owner had to choose. Cydny wrote up a really nice cover letter to tell them how nice our little family was and the youngest boy still sucks his thumb, so cute... etc...
We hoped and prayed. Although we were praying that if it's the right place, we'd get it, I think we meant "Please let us have it, please let us have it!" We could deal with needing a roof. Monday, we got the word. We did NOT get it. Oh great. Now what? There's nothing else out there!
You know why we didn't get that house? Because God already had chosen a better one, and we'd see it the next day. We scrounged around online and found a couple more. I think we went out on Tuesday again. Drove down one street and didn't even stop in. Then we drove up the road a ways, following the directions to this last one. We turned down this really well maintained street with all the beautiful pink trees in bloom. I was thinking we would just pass through this nice area before we hit the scud property, as usual. Not so. Looks neat and clean on the outside. Culdesac. Quiet. Let's go in and see what's wrong with it. Staged. Clean. Neutral colors. Large kitchen. Tri-level. Moose mural in kids' room. Large cement patio and landscaped back yard. Good roof. Good paint. Ummmmmmm... why is this priced like this? (It was AT our price point). There has GOT to be something wrong with it, but we couldn't see anything. Cydny called the other realtor over the phone and told him we would make an offer. We went home and tried not to get our hopes up...
...to be continued...
(I'll try to get to the last installment more quickly. I just don't want to make these too long or no one will read them ;)
On a Tuesday, while the kids were at school, we went out with Cydny to look at houses. I took the stack of papers, and made notes on them. Here are some of my notes:
"Blue" The interior of this house was blue. All rooms painted in shades of blue. All blue carpet.
"Purple" This one had a lot of purple carpet, and about 4 different types of floorings... wood, laminate and tile.
"Italian Restaurant" Featuring fake tile and no yard.
"Small"
"/" ... due to zero lot line
"Road Noise"
"Potential"
"X" ... on corner of 2 busy streets
"Smoke"
"Power Lines" At least one of the houses that resided near to power lines was pretty nice. Cydny and Mike had to let me know that it wouldn't be a good move. I didn't think it was that big a deal, but they were probably right.
We were kinda laughing at our poor luck, a little bit. It was getting a bit scary though. Although our little house was so small, at least it was already fixed up and in a good location. But, oh yeah, it was sold.
Sunday. We left the kids with someone (sorry, I can't remember who helped us that day... but I think it was Susan). We 'upped' the price range a little bit to get some new options, and counted on the poor sellers' market to work in our favor for negotiations. More powerlines, but we saw a couple decent ones this time. Gave us a little hope.
Then an open house... Wow... This looks good... Besides needing a new shake roof, this place was good. It was priced to sell quickly as the owner had to move back East. It was on a nice culdesac and backed up to a greenbelt. Make an OFFER NOW. So we did. There was already one other offer on it, so the owner had to choose. Cydny wrote up a really nice cover letter to tell them how nice our little family was and the youngest boy still sucks his thumb, so cute... etc...
We hoped and prayed. Although we were praying that if it's the right place, we'd get it, I think we meant "Please let us have it, please let us have it!" We could deal with needing a roof. Monday, we got the word. We did NOT get it. Oh great. Now what? There's nothing else out there!
You know why we didn't get that house? Because God already had chosen a better one, and we'd see it the next day. We scrounged around online and found a couple more. I think we went out on Tuesday again. Drove down one street and didn't even stop in. Then we drove up the road a ways, following the directions to this last one. We turned down this really well maintained street with all the beautiful pink trees in bloom. I was thinking we would just pass through this nice area before we hit the scud property, as usual. Not so. Looks neat and clean on the outside. Culdesac. Quiet. Let's go in and see what's wrong with it. Staged. Clean. Neutral colors. Large kitchen. Tri-level. Moose mural in kids' room. Large cement patio and landscaped back yard. Good roof. Good paint. Ummmmmmm... why is this priced like this? (It was AT our price point). There has GOT to be something wrong with it, but we couldn't see anything. Cydny called the other realtor over the phone and told him we would make an offer. We went home and tried not to get our hopes up...
Another Apop song... this one has become Josh's favorite song.
...to be continued...
(I'll try to get to the last installment more quickly. I just don't want to make these too long or no one will read them ;)
|
Black Pawn ___________________________________________________________ |
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Pink Trees: Part 2: Faceless Fear
Paranoia (Haunted Club Mix)
Apoptygma Berzerk
One day you'll realize that you were wrong
You'll regret that all this happened
Some day you'll realize that you were wrong
To be left with Paranoia, as your only friend...
Your mind is full of enemies, the room is full of energies
That want to take control
They're all around you, and you're all alone
Your mind is full of enemies, the room is full of energies
Haunting your soul
They're all around you, and you're on your own
I'm a little fuzzy on the length of time the house was on the market, but I think it was just about 6 weeks. Pretty good in a bad market. During that time, amidst the stress of showings, I would take some time here and there to go driving around. I'd look up houses on the MLS, and drive by some of them to see where they were. I pinpointed a general area that I thought would be good, and seemed to have a few options. Since most houses were on the market for a long time, there wasn't any real rush. I didn't think we'd have any trouble finding something in our price range.
Our house sold! We got just as much as we needed to make our move. We had 6 weeks lead time until closing. This was great. Then I opened my email the next day. There was a note from my mortgage broker, saying something to the effect of, "Congratulations! Cydny told me the house sold! Based on your sale price of $xxx,xxx, and wanting to purchase in the $xxx,xxx range, your new payment would be..." $OHCRAPWHATHAPPENED???
The panic I felt that moment is burned into my memory. As my heart goes into full panic mode - shaking, sweating, etc. I quickly sent an email back to her telling her that this number is $800/mo higher than what we had talked about before! Was there a mistake? We just SOLD our HOUSE.
I can't recall if she called me back or if I called her, but burned in again is me standing in the boys' room talking to her on the phone and hearing, "I'm SO sorry, I can't believe I did this. Your last loan was an interest only loan, and I forgot to uncheck that box when quoting your new loan. I have never done this before in my whole career." We went back and forth a little about how this is a HUGE amount. We've got kids in private school, we don't have this kind of flexibility and now we've just sold our house. I was a disaster. Didn't even want to tell Mike, but obviously I had to. He was livid.
Poor, poor, Cydny. The most professional realtor ever. I never knew that realtors had to be counselors too! I called her up and told her what was going on, she listened as I freaked out (embarrassingly - I was even crying on the phone. I don't cry often. Almost never. Couldn't help it.) She was very understanding and sympathetic. She encouraged me that we would be able to find something we like in our new price range. She told me that the MB (who shall remain nameless) was also crying on the phone and wishing she could just GIVE us money to make up for the mistake, etc.
End result was that Cydny would print up some listings and bring them over and we could see that there were still options. I contacted another mortgage broker, a dad from our kids' school and asked if he would run numbers for us, and explained to him what happened.
Over the next couple days, Mike was angry, I was upset and full of anxiety. We had tried to be so careful not to make any mistakes, and had moved forward on this whole deal based on a bad quote from day 1. Now, we were in a position that we might have to settle for 'just a house that we can afford', and if we were going to do that, we would have stayed in the one we had! Alas, that was no longer an option. It was already sold.
The last 2 houses we'd bought were ones that we refer to as having 'potential'. We liked them, but they needed some updating, work here, work there, etc. We were really trying to avoid potential in this move. We didn't have the time or money to put into it right now.
One last heart attack during this week. The inspection was set for Friday. Since we've never sold a house in the conventional manner before, I didn't know what to expect for the inspection. I thought it was all techy stuff done by the inspector. I get a call at work from Cydny, and she somewhat frantically asks me, "Rebecca! Did you forget the inspection today?" "What? No! Why?" She responds, "The house is a mess! The buyers are there and it's a mess!" "What? I didn't know the buyers would be there! We raced out this morning and were running late. There are some dishes in the kitchen and stuff, but it shouldn't be THAT bad." I'm in full panic mode again. I called Mike, he totally stepped up and called Cydny, and told her not to call me with any more bad news. Call him now. My wife can't handle it. :) They call me back a little later and she had talked to the other realtor and they were all fine, no big deal, etc. OK. Heart rate can go back to normal sometime today.
...to be continued...
|
Black Pawn ___________________________________________________________ |
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Pink Trees: Part 1
The kids got bigger and the dog doubled, and the house shrank. With only one living space, everyone was literally tripping over each other. So, we started checking into add on ideas. Turned out, to do it right would be too expensive, and to do it cheaply, it would look like what Mike and I would refer to as an 'ass-factory' (AF for short).
Since historically we do not make the best decisions whenever finances are involved, we really decided that we'd be careful and pray for God's will. We'd only move if we could be financially responsible about it. (What does that even mean?!) First call was to the mortgage broker. She advised us as to what we could afford for the payment amount we could do. She told us how much we'd need to put down, and then could figure out what to sell the house for etc. She referred us to an expert realtor for Woodinville. At the end of all that and looking up some houses on the MLS to see what our options might be, we were like "Wow, we can do pretty well here!" We would have no problem getting a bigger house in a nice 'hood just a little farther north of Woodinville, for very close to the same payment we currently had!
Enter Cydny, our realtor. We were still trying to stay non-committal about the whole thing so we wouldn't rush and be stupid. She came over to look at our house, and went through each room and told us exactly what to do to prep it for sale... down to the interior paint color. "Crisp Khaki" from Benjamin Moore. This was in December 2009 - when the housing market was still swirling in the toilet.
We started packing anything we didn't need to have out. We started on cleaning up the yard (1/3 acre of overgrowth, old fencing material, dog poop and mud), filled a 1800Junk truck, took several trips to the dump ourselves and to donate stuff. Mike did most of the work. He laid new bark over lots of the yard after hours and hours of raking.
Inside, he spent a lot of time painting. The stupid paint required about 3 coats for good coverage, and there were lots of windows in that area to paint around. He did all the trim too. We replaced the carpet, put new linoleum and toilet in the bathroom (Steve helped get the toilet working on Christmas Day). Phew... TONS of work, but eventually it was done. Cydny came over and staged the house (sometime in January, I think). It looked pretty good! Unfortunately, in "computer crash horror 2010", I lost any other pictures I took of the interior.
Now it was listed! Since the market was low, it was listed for less than it would have been a couple years previously. We were not concerned with making profit, just getting what we needed to be able to move.
Enter hell. 3 kids, 2 dogs and a cat in a staged house that can't SMELL like dog (Febreze was my friend), animals couldn't go upstairs on new carpet (EVER), and anytime there was a showing, we had to clear out. Pets too. Talk about stress! Especially when Cydny called during the day about a same day showing, and I had to leave work to get it ready ASAP. I totally burned through my whole entire 'good smelling' candle during that time.
I don't deal with stress well, and this was a very stressful scenario for me. I really did want God's will though, and was praying that IF we were to move, that the house would sell for what we needed. We had really tried to cover all our bases and do our research and be smart about it, while praying for God's will, and going step by step. At this point, it would have really sucked if it didn't sell and we had to move back in. At least we'd have new carpet and paint though...
Now we wait.
...to be continued...
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